This invention relates to fluid receptors for use within cavities of the human body and more particularly, it concerns improvements in intravaginal catamenial tampons.
Intravaginal tampons are in common use by women for the retention of fluids or menses discharged along the walls of the vagina during the menstrual cycle. Such tampons are usually formed of absorbent materials such as cotton, rayon cellulose wading, synthetic sponge, cellulose fluff, synthetic fibers or combinations of these materials and compressed or molded usually to a generally cylindrical configuration of a size to fit within the vaginal tract.
Several problems are associated with the use of intravaginal tampons for the collection and retention of menstrual fluids. For example, the peripheral interior contour of the vaginal wall, being unpredictably irregular as compared with the preformed tampon often leads to the by-pass of fluid menses through the occasional spaces encountered between the outer surface of the tampon and the inner vaginal wall. If the tampon itself is sufficiently flexible or compressible to conform with the peripheral configuration of the vaginal tract, the compressibility of the tampon itself reduces the effectiveness of the tampon to retain or store the menstrual fluids. In particular, compression of the tampon will result in the discharge of accumulated fluids both when the tampon is compressed directly such as during withdrawal or indirectly due to the increase in intravaginal pressure caused by the most common of body movements.
Because of the configuration of the vaginal tract and nature of menstrual fluid flow, conventional fibrous tampons fall short of full utilization of saturation capacity. Specifically, the menstrual fluids flow down along the walls of the vagina and tend to be collected at the frontal end of the tampon whereas the major absorptive surface exposure is along the sides of the tampon adjacent the vaginal walls. At this area however, the direction of fluid flow is perpendicular to the tampon surface and thus less than ideal for full absorption into the tampon. Finally, and perhaps because of the aforementioned difficulties, the use of tampons is commonly accompanied with undesirable irritation as a result of frequent insertion and withdrawal during periods of heavy menses flow. Also chafing may occur during periods of light menses flow because of the tendency of the tampon to absorb whatever small amount of liquids are present on the vaginal walls thereby to generate excess friction between the tampon and the vaginal walls.